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May was a disappointly light month for books read, and even worse in terms of writing reviews of the books. Too much work, too much travel, just not enough time for books. This makes me very sad. But hopefully June will be better... And I do have a stack of recent reads that I loved that I intend to review soon. I especially enjoyed Dairy Queen.

Children's and Young Adult Books

1. Dia Calhoun: The Phoenix Dance. Completed May 2, 2007. My review.
2. Linda Buckley-Archer: Gideon the Cutpurse. Simon & Schuster. Completed May 3, 2007.
3. Kirsten Miller: Kiki Strike: The Empress's Tomb. Bloomsbury. Completed May 8, 2007. I'll have an interview with Kirsten Miller as part of the Summer Blog Blast Tour later in June.
4. Rick Riordan: The Titan's Curse. Miramax. Completed May 11, 2007, on MP3.
5. Eric Berlin: The Puzzling World of Winston Breen. Putnam Juvenile. Completed May 15, 2007. My review.
6. Margaret Peterson Haddix: Among the Free. Simon & Schuster. Completed May 16, 2007. Mini-review at Dystopian Challenge Blog.
7. Matthew Skelton: Endymion Spring. Delacorte Books for Young Readers. Completed May 24, 2007, on MP3.
8. Wendy Mass: Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life. Little, Brown. Completed May 24, 2007.
9. Catherine Murdock: Dairy Queen. Houghton Mifflin. Completed May 29, 2007.

Adult Fiction

1. Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid's Tale. Anchor Books. Completed May 9, 2007. Mini-review at Dystopian Challenge Blog.
2. Robert Crais: The Watchman. Simon & Schuster. Completed May 20, 2007. This book is a twist on Crais' Elvis Cole series, featuring sidekick Joe Pike as the star. I enjoyed the peek into the inner working of Joe's mysterious mind.

Still on target, and actually slightly ahead of schedule, to read 200 books this year. Despite being behind on my reviews, all of my travels this past month did give me lots of time to read. Here's the April list.

Children's and Young Adult Books

1. Dian Curtis Regan: Cam's Quest. Darby Creek Publishing. Completed April 1, 2007. My review.
2. Laura Hillman: I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree: A Memoir of a Schindler's List Survivor. Atheneum. Completed April 1, 2007.
3. Margaret Peterson Haddix: Among the Imposters. Simon & Schuster. Completed April 2, 2007.
4. Cecil Castellucci: Boy Proof. Candlewick. Completed April 4, 2007. My review.
5. Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain: Bass Ackwards and Belly Up. Megan Tingley. Completed April 4, 2007.
6. Karen Blumenthal: Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX: The Law That Changed the Future of Girls in America. Atheneum. Completed April 5, 2007. (young adult non-fiction)
7. Tina Schwager and Michele Schuerger (Authors), Elizabeth Verdick (Editor): Gutsy Girls: Young Women Who Dare. Free Spirit Publishing. Completed April 5, 2007
8. Margaret Peterson Haddix: Among the Betrayed. Simon & Schuster. Completed April 5, 2007.
9. Margaret Peterson Haddix: Among the Barons. Simon & Schuster. Completed April 5, 2007.
10. Gail Gauthier: A Girl, A Boy, and a Monster Cat. Putnam. Completed April 7, 2007. My review.
11. Melanie Watt: Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend. Kids Can Press. Completed April 7, 2007. My review.
12. Tim Egan: The Pink Refrigerator. Houghton Mifflin. Completed April 8, 2007. My review.
13. Robert Heidbreder (author) and Kady MacDonald Denton (illustrator): A Sea-Wishing Day. Kids Can Press. Completed April 8, 2007.
14. Jessica Meserve: Small Sister. Clarion. Completed April 8, 2007.
15. Scott Magoon: Hugo & Miles in I've Painted Everything. Houghton Mifflin. Completed April 8, 2007.
16. Cece Meng (author) and Janet Peterson (illustrator): The Wonderful Thing About Hiccups. Clarion. Completed April 8, 2007.
17. Dianna Aston and Sylvia Long. An Egg is Quiet. Chronicle Books. Completed April 8, 2007.
18. Nick Ruth (author) and Sue Concannon (illustrator): The Dark Dreamweaver (The Remin Chronicles). Completed April 11, 2007.
19. Crissa-Jean Chappell: Total Constant Order. Completed April 12, 2007.
20. Dana Reinhardt: Harmless. Completed April 13, 2007.
21. Pete Hautman: Godless. Completed April 13, 2007.
22. James Patterson: Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever. Completed April 15, 2007.
23. Kenneth Oppel: Skybreaker. Eos Publishing. Completed April 23, 2007.
24. Mitali Perkins: First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover. Dutton Juvenile. Completed April 26, 2007.
25. Margaret Peterson Haddix: Among the Brave. Aladdin. Completed April 28, 2007.
26. Margaret Peterson Haddix: Among the Enemy. Aladdin. Completed April 29, 2007.

Adult Fiction

1. Julia Spencer-Fleming: All Mortal Flesh. Completed April 6, 2007. The latest in the Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Allstyne series, about a female Episcopal priest who falls in love with a married small-town police chief. They solve mysteries together. I'm a sucker for these star-crossed lover stories. The mystery in this one is a bit too close to home for the pair - the murder of Russ's wife, Linda, for which both Russ and Clare are suspects. This is one of my favorite series, and this one did not disappoint, and even surprised me with a major twist. Best sentence: "Meg's family room was always filled with sprawls of teenage boys, her kitchen overrun with giggles of girls."
2. Victoria Thompson: Murder in Little Italy. Berkley Prime Crime. Completed April 8, 2007. Eighth book in the Gaslight Mystery series, set in New York during the 1890s (while Theodore Roosevelt was Police Commissioner), featuring Sarah Brandt, a midwife from a wealthy family, and Frank Malloy, one of the few honest police detectives in the city. This series just keeps getting better. The next book, Murder in Chinatown, is due out in June.
3. Cormac McCarthy: The Road. Knopf. Completed April 9, 2007. A beautifully written tale set in an incredibly bleak post-apocalyptic future. I didn't find it as compelling as some post-apocalypse/dystopian stories because one of the key ingredients was largely missing. There's little wondering what you would do, because the available options have already shrunk down to "scrounge for food and warmth", pretty much. But still an interesting and quick read.
4. Carol O'Connell: Find Me. Putnam. Completed April 21, 2007. Latest book in the Mallory series, as compelling as the others, and revealing new layers of Mallory's character.

Looking forward to catching up on reviews in May.

In case any of you are by any faint chance wondering, I am on target to reach my goal of reading 200 books this year. I've read 53 books in the first quarter of the year. Here are the books that I read in March.

Children's and Young Adult Books

1. Justina Chen Headley: Nothing but the Truth (and a few white lies). Little, Brown and Company. Completed March 4, 2007. My review.
2. Melanie Watt: Scaredy Squirrel. Kids Can Press. Completed March 10, 2007. This book won the Cybils award for fiction picture books. My review.
3. Barbara Lehman: Rainstorm. Houghton Mifflin. Completed March 10, 2007. My review.
4. Jez Alborough: Fix-It Duck. Kane/Miller (This is the American board book edition. It was originally published in Great Britian by HarperCollins in 2002). Completed March 10, 2007. My review.
5. Anette Bley: And What Comes After a Thousand? Kane/Miller (translated edition, originally published in Germany). Completed March 10, 2007. My review.
6. Suzy Lee: The Zoo. Kane/Miller. Completed March 10, 2007. My review.
7. Jon J. Muth: Zen Shorts. Scholastic Press. Completed March 10, 2007.
8. Edward Bloor. London Calling. Knopf Books for Young Readers. Completed March 17, 2007 (on MP3 from Audible).
9. Olivier Dunrea: Ollie the Stomper. Houghton-Mifflin. Completed March 17, 2007.
10. E. Lockhart: The Boyfriend List. Delacorte. Completed March 20, 2007 (on MP3 from Audible). My review.
11. R. L. LaFevers: Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos. Houghton Mifflin. Completed March 22, 2007. My review.
12. Margaret Peterson Haddix: Among the Hidden. Aladdin. Completed March 24, 2007.
13. Laurie Halse Anderson: Speak. Penguin. Completed March 24, 2007.
14. Sarah Beth Durst: Into the Wild. Razorbill. Completed March 25, 2007. My review.
15. Susan Beth Pfeffer: Life As We Knew It. Harcourt Children's Books. Completed March 27, 2007. Review forthcoming.
16. Dian Curtis Regan: Princess Nevermore. Darby Creek Publishing. Completed March 27, 2007. Review forthcoming.
17. Michelle Knudsen (Author) and Kevin Hawkes (Illustrator): Library Lion. Candlewick. Completed March 31, 2007.

Adult Fiction

1. Ann Benson: The Burning Road. Dell. Completed March 1, 2007. Sequel to The Plague Tales.
2. M. C. Beaton: Agatha Raisin and The Deadly Dance. St. Martins. Completed March 7, 2007 This is an entertaining cozy series, centered around a somewhat grouchy retired career woman who lives in the English Cotswalds and stumbles upon various mysteries. I don't read very many cozy series, but something about the bite of Agatha's personality appeals to me.
3. Laura Lippman: No Good Deeds. Harper. Completed March 8, 2007. This is a return by Lippman to her Tess Monaghan series. Tess is a Baltimore private investigator. In this installment, her boyfriend Crow, through an intended good deed, drags her into a dangerous situation.
4. Ann Benson: The Physician's Tale. Delacorte Press. Completed March 17, 2007. This is the third, and apparently final, book in Benson's Plague Tales series. I found this book, set in a plague decimated world, utterly compelling, and kept thinking about it when I was away from the book.

Adult Non-Fiction

1. Kathleen T. Horning (ill. Stacy Innerst): From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing Children's Books. HarperTrophy. Completed March 16, 2007. While much of the material is introductory, I thought that the author made some excellent points about reviewing children's books thoughtfully and seriously.

What are you reading?

In case you're interested, here are the books that I read in Feburary. My January list is here, and the complete list for the year to date is here. I've included links to my reviews, and summary notes for books that I didn't review.

Children's and Young Adult Books

1. Alma Fullerton: In the Garage. Red Deer Press. Completed February 3, 2007. My review.
2. Malcolm Rose: Double Check. Kingfisher. Completed February 6, 2007. My review.
3. Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm: Babymouse: Heartbreaker. Random House. Completed February 7, 2007. My review.
4. David Patneaude: A Piece of the Sky. Albert Whitman. Completed February 9, 2007. My review.
5. Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Knopf. Completed February 11, 2007. My review. This book won the Cybils award for young adult fiction.
6. Nancy Werlin: The Rules of Survival. Dial Books. Completed February 12, 2007. This book was a shortlist title for Cybils young adult fiction. I enjoyed it, but didn't write a review.
7. Suzanne Collins: Gregor and the Marks of Secret. Scholastic. Completed February 19, 2007. My review.
8. Jordan Sonnenblick: Notes from the Midnight Driver. Scholastic. Completed February 23, 2007. My review.
9. Margo Rabb: Cures for Heartbreak. Delacorte Books. Completed February 25, 2007. My review.

Adult Fiction

1. Lee Child: The Hard Way. Dell. Completed February 2, 2007. This is the latest in Child's Jack Reacher series, which I normally enjoy. I didn't like this one as much as the others because a) I found the mystery and clues a bit too easy to figure out, and didn't understand why Reacher didn't figure them out and b) there was a searing recounting by a character of previous torture that I'm having trouble getting out of my mind.
2. Jasper Fforde: The Fourth Bear: A Nursery Crime. Viking. Completed February 8, 2007, on MP3 from audible.com. This one took me a long time to get through, because I was listening at a time I wasn't walking very much. It was entertaining, but I still prefer Fforde's Thursday Next series to this one.
3. Barry Maitland: No Trace. St. Martin's Minotaur. Completed February 15, 2007. The latest David Brock / Kathy Kolla mystery, this one involving three kidnapped girls, set in the cutting edge London art gallery scene. I suspected the bad guy from early on, but Maitland did an excellent job of mis-direction, keeping me thinking, "no, maybe this is what's going on." Definitely on the dark side of the mystery spectrum, but excellent.
4. P. J. Tracy: Snow Blind. Completed February 23, 2007. I found this suspense story well-written and engaging, but it left me dissatisfied. I thought that the ending was frustratingly ambiguous, and, on reflection, thought that the plot relied on too many coincidences. I have enjoyed the previous books in the series, and I probably would still read future books, but I didn't care for this one.

Hopefully in March I'll find more time to read. I have a big stack of picture books to read and review, but those will have to wait until I'm done traveling.

Sherry just posted her January reading list, with links to her reviews, over at Semicolon. The Old Coot also regularly posts his monthly reading lists (see his January list here). And I thought it was something worth trying out myself. So, here is my list of books completed so far this year, broken down into 3 categories, and sorted by date. You can also find this list on my GrowingBookworms book list website.

Children's and Young Adult Books

1. John Fardell: The 7 Professors of the Far North. Completed January 2, 2007. My review.
2. Laura Amy Schlitz: A Drowned Maiden's Hair: A Melodrama. Completed January 6, 2007. A Cybils shortlist title for Middle Grade Fiction. I plan to review after the award is announced, as I am on the judging committee. But I will say that all of the shortlist books are excellent!
3. Heather Waldorf: Grist. Completed January 10, 2007. My review.
4. Mike Lupica: Heat. Completed January 13, 2007. Also on the Cybils MG shortlist. Will review after the award is announced.
5. Frank Cottrell Boyce: Framed. Completed January 13, 2007. Also on the Cybils MG shortlist. Will review after the award is announced.
6. Cynthia Kadohata: Weedflower. Completed January 14, 2007. Also on the Cybils MG shortlist. Will review after the award is announced.
7. Frances Hodgson Burnett: Little Lord Fauntleroy. Completed January 14, 2007. My review.
8. Susan Cooper: King of Shadows. Completed January 24, 2007. Read this for the Scholar's Blog Book Discussion Group. Review forthcoming.
9. Mo Willems: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. Completed January 27, 2007. Wonderful, but already well known, so I didn't review it.
10. David Wiesner: Flotsam. Completed January 27, 2007. My review.
11. Doreen Cronin: Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type. Completed January 27, 2007. Also wonderful, and well-known, and I didn't review it. I like to give this as a baby gift to my more keyboard-attached friends.
12. Annie Barrows, illustrated by Sophie Blackall. Ivy and Bean Break the Fossil Record. Completed January 28, 2007. My review.
13. Katherine Paterson: Bread and Roses, Too. Completed January 31, 2007. Review forthcoming.

Adult Fiction

1. Jacqueline Winspear: Messenger of Truth. Completed January 4, 2007. The fourth book in the wonderful Maisie Dobbs series, historical fiction set in post-World War I England.
2. Andrea Camillieri: The Smell of the Night. Completed January 18, 2007. My latest read from the Inspector Montalbano series, set in Sicily.
3. Harlan Coben: Promise Me. Completed January 20, 2007. This is a new Myron Bolitar book, after several year's absence. It's great to have him back!
4. T. Jefferson Parker: The Fallen. Completed January 26, 2007. This is a standalone book about a cop who is thrown from a sixth floor window. He survives with a new ability: he sees emotions as colors, and can tell when people are lying to him.

Adult Non-Fiction

1. Craig Kielburger and Marc Kielburger: Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material World. Completed January 5, 2007. This book was a gift from my friend Jonathan White, who works closely with the authors as a member of Free the Children's board of directors. It's a great book that will give any reader food for thought about finding meaning and joy in life.

For those keeping score, I am on track for my goal of reading 200 books this year. But of course my available reading time varies from month to month, too. The more I read, the more I want to read. I know that much.